AP News in Brief at 5:58 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an assertion of same-sex marriage rights, Attorney General Eric Holder is applying a landmark Supreme Court ruling to the Justice Department, announcing Saturday that same-sex spouses cannot be compelled to testify against each other, should be eligible to file for bankruptcy jointly and are entitled to the same rights and privileges as federal prison inmates in opposite-sex marriages.

The Justice Department runs a number of benefits programs, and Holder says same-sex couples will qualify for them. They include the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and benefits to surviving spouses of public safety officers who suffer catastrophic or fatal injuries in the line of duty.

"In every courthouse, in every proceeding and in every place where a member of the Department of Justice stands on behalf of the United States, they will strive to ensure that same-sex marriages receive the same privileges, protections and rights as opposite-sex marriages under federal law," Holder said in prepared remarks to the Human Rights Campaign in New York. The advocacy group works on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights.

Just as in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the stakes in the current generation over same-sex marriage rights "could not be higher," said Holder.

"The Justice Department's role in confronting discrimination must be as aggressive today as it was in Robert Kennedy's time," Holder said of the attorney general who played a leadership role in advancing civil rights.

Bangui, the capital, is engulfed in an orgy of bloodshed and looting despite the presence of thousands of French and African peacekeepers.

"We are in a moment where immediate action is needed to stop the killings," Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press, calling for a full-fledged U.N. peacekeeping mission. "Otherwise the future of the Muslim community of this country will be gone."

Muslims make up about 15 percent of Central African Republic's 4.6 million people. More than 800,000 people have fled their homes —about half of those from the capital, according to the United Nations.

"There are some who don't want Muslims in this country," Prime Minister Andre Nzapayeke said on local radio Saturday. "But when the Muslims have left the country, what happens next? The Protestants will throw out the Catholics, and then the Baptists against the Evangelists, and finally the animists? It is time we regain control and stop ourselves from plunging into an abyss."

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The word from Olympians: No gay rights, please, we're competing — but ask us later

Plenty of athletes made clear before traveling to Sochi how unhappy they were about gay rights being curtailed in Russia, particularly with its law banning gay "propaganda."

But now in Sochi, there has not been a squeak of public protest from the 2,870 Olympians — either at venues or at Friday's opening ceremony.

Outside the Olympic bubble, the plight of Russia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community continues to dog the games.

&T, have spoken explicitly against the Russian law. Google Inc. hinted its opposition by putting winter athletes and rainbow colors on its search-page logo.

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Cease-fire falters in embattled Syrian city, halts aid, evacuations

BEIRUT (AP) — Two trucks carrying food and medical supplies into rebel-held neighborhoods in the central Syrian city of Homs turned back under heavy fire Saturday, leaving four paramedics wounded as a cease-fire faltered, Syrian officials said.

Talal Barrazi, the governor of Homs province, told the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV that the attack occurred late in the afternoon and that the trucks were targeted by two roadside bombs and a mortar shell from the rebel side.

Homs activist Ahmad al-Qusair however denied there had been roadside bombs and said the convoy was attacked by mortar shells fired by government forces.

Barrazi later told Syrian state TV that two trucks were able to reach opposition-held neighborhoods earlier in the day. Al-Mayadeen also reported that two trucks, carrying 250 food parcels, were able to cross into rebel-held areas Saturday.

The state TV said four members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were wounded by rebel fire in the area, but gave no further details.

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AP PHOTOS: Sochi kicks off with big wins

The first day of medal competition at the Sochi Winter Olympics kicked off with some record-breaking wins. Sven Kramer of the Netherlands led a clean sweep by the Dutch in the men's 5,000-meter speed skating. In slopestyle's Olympic debut, U.S. snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg won the first gold medal of the games.

UN: Number of children dying in Afghanistan rising, as Taliban bombs, battles hit civilians

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The number of children killed and wounded in Afghanistan's war jumped by 34 percent last year as the Taliban stepped up attacks across the country and continued to lay thousands of roadside bombs, the United Nations said Saturday.

Overall civilian casualties were up by 14 percent, reversing 2012's downward trend and making 2013 one of the deadliest years of the 12-year war for civilians, the U.N. Assistance Mission for Afghanistan said in a report.

The rising civilian toll underscores mounting levels of violence in Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents have ramped up attacks to try to gain ground and shake the Afghan government's confidence as international combat troops prepare to complete their withdrawal at the end of the year.

ity forces.

It recorded a total of 962 battles in which civilians were harmed last year — an average rate of nearly 20 such battles every week — and said civilian casualties caused by such fighting rose by 43 percent over the previous year.

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After back-and-forth op-eds, next step uncertain in Woody Allen allegations

NEW YORK (AP) — A week bracketed by op-ed letters of accusation and denial left little clarity and scant hope for resolution in a bitter saga that has haunted Woody Allen and the Farrow family for more than two decades.

Allen responded to adopted daughter Dylan Farrow's allegation that he sexually assaulted her when she was 7 with a letter published Friday by the New York Times. He declared it would be his "final word on this entire matter."

But the next steps are uncertain, with the possibility of legal recourse and continued scrutiny in the weeks and months ahead.

The rampant debate sparked by Farrow's accusation will likely continue to stir questions over the alleged molestation, how claims of sexual assault are publicly weighed, and the legacy of Allen's work as a filmmaker.

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The heroin mill next door: In NYC, nation's smack capital, dealers succeed by blending in

NEW YORK (AP) — In a major drug bust that drew little attention just a week before Philip Seymour Hoffman's death, authorities found a sophisticated heroin packaging and distribution operation in an apartment in the Bronx.

There, workers with coffee grinders, scoops and scales toiled around the clock to break down bricks of the drug into thousands of tiny, hit-size baggies, bearing such stamped brands as "Government Shutdown" and, in a nod to the Super Bowl, "NFL."

The seizure of $8 million worth of heroin was the result of the latest raid on heroin mills located behind the doors of New York homes, which authorities say are a sign of a well-oiled distribution network that caters to more mainstream, middle- and upper-class customers like the Oscar-winning Hoffman.

Heroin dealers want to find customers with ready cash "who are going to be with them until they die," said city Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan. "That's the attitude."

Tests are continuing to try to pinpoint how Hoffman died, but his body was found with a syringe in his arm and dozens of packets of heroin nearby. Where he got his drugs remains uncertain, but the arrests of drug suspects identified during the investigation suggest he might have visited a lower Manhattan apartment building where a supplier lived.

LONDON (AP) — News organizations publishing leaked National Security Agency documents have inadvertently disclosed the names of at least six intelligence workers and other government secrets they never intended to give away, an Associated Press review has found.

The accidental disclosures illustrate the risks of even well-intentioned, public-interest reporting on highly secret U.S. programs.

In some cases, prominent newspapers including The New York Times quickly pulled down government records they published online and recensored them to hide information they accidentally exposed. On one occasion, the Guardian newspaper published an NSA document that appeared to identify an American intelligence target living abroad. Before the newspaper could fix its mistake, a curious software engineer, Ron Garret of Emerald Hills, Calif., tried to contact the man at his office.

ress.

The inadvertent disclosures, which include technical details and other information, are another complication in the ethically and technically challenging coverage of the NSA's surveillance programs. Journalists who have seen the unfiltered secrets leaked by former intelligence worker Edward Snowden agree that some things are off-limits for publication. But media organizations sometimes have struggled to keep them that way.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hit with a multimillion-dollar barrage of televised attacks, Democrats in tough re-election races want credit for trying to fix the problematic parts of the health care law at the same time they claim bragging rights for its popular provisions and allege Republicans will reverse the crackdown on insurance company abuses.

It's a tricky, high-stakes political straddle by lawmakers who voted to create the law, which Republicans intend to place at the center of their campaign to win control of the Senate and hold their House majority.

In one of the year's most closely watched races, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., recently aired a commercial that shows her in numerous public settings last fall sternly telling President Barack Obama to keep his promise to let people keep their current health plans if they want to — and then taking credit after he took steps to make that happen.

"I'm fixing it and that's what my bill does, and I've urged the president to fix it," Landrieu says in the ad.

It ends with a screen that reads: "The result: People now allowed to keep health care plans."